The Eri B. Sitt Edition and Audio Series of the Talmud Bavli, Tractate Sotah, has been dedicated by our good friends and students, Mr. Haimi and Dina Dana, for the success of their children, and especially for the complete recovery of Moshe ben Dina; and for the souls of Yosef ben Sarina, David ben Frida, Nair ben Zohara, Moshe ben Feigaru, Sarah bat Esther, Feigaru bat Esther, and Esther bat Yochevet. May the Divine Presence comfort them in the Garden of Eden. Amen. May you merit to perform mitzvot.
Today's page has been dedicated by Mr. Mark Safdie in honor of Meyer and Victoria Safdie, that God should grant them health and life, and on the birth of their new baby girl, Devasha Devorah bat Mazal Behek. May she fear God. Amen.
Page 12 is being studied for the elevation of the soul of my grandmother, Yafa bat Sara; for the elevation of the soul of my grandfather, Yosef ben Sara; and for the soul of Avraham ben Esther. May the Divine Presence comfort them in the Garden of Eden. Amen. For a complete recovery: Shimon ben Dina, Sara Ruhama bat Rachel, and Sara bat Rachel. May God heal them and grant them complete health of soul and body. Amen.
We are on page 11, side B, and we are up to the exposition beginning with the word “she feared,” the last word on the line, approximately fifteen lines from the top. We are discussing the story of the Jewish midwives.
We had a disagreement about who these midwives were. Either they were Yocheved and Miriam, or they were Yocheved and her daughter-in-law, Elisheva. The verse says that the midwives feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them.
The Gemara asks: Since the verse says that they did not do as he had spoken to them, it should not say that they did not do as he had spoken to them. The word “to them” suggests something concerning a relationship. Rather, the verse should say simply that the midwives feared God and did not do as he had spoken.
Rabbi Yosef bar Rabbi Hanina says that this teaches that Pharaoh solicited the midwives to commit a sin with him, but they did not listen to Pharaoh concerning the sin he wished to commit with them. Pharaoh reasoned that if he had relations with them, they would become close to him and then obey his command to kill the Jewish children. One can imagine the pressure they were under. This was the king, and yet they did not buckle. They feared God and did not listen to Pharaoh.
The verse continues, “And they gave life to the children.” The Sages taught: This means not only that they did not kill the children; they actually sustained them. They provided them with water and food. That is what the verse means when it says that they gave life to the children.
Pharaoh then confronted the midwives and asked what was happening. They answered, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous.” The Gemara asks: What does the word “vigorous” mean? What was their excuse?
One possibility would be that they meant that all the Jewish women were midwives. But that cannot be the meaning, because even a midwife needs another midwife to assist her during childbirth. Even if a woman is experienced, she still needs someone else to help her. Therefore, that explanation would not hold.
Rather, they told Pharaoh that the Jewish people had been compared to animals. Judah was compared to a lion; Dan to a serpent; Naphtali to a gazelle; Issachar to a strong-boned donkey; Joseph to a firstborn ox; and Benjamin to a wolf that tears. For those tribes to whom an animal is explicitly assigned, the comparison is clear. As for those for whom an animal is not explicitly assigned, there is a general verse that compares the Jewish people to a lion among animals.
Just as an animal does not need assistance when giving birth, the Jewish women gave birth like animals and did not need anyone to help them. By the time the midwives reached them, the women had already given birth.
As a result, God rewarded the midwives because they feared Him, and He made houses for them. Rav and Shmuel disagree about what these houses were. One says that they were the houses of the priesthood and the Levites; the descendants of the midwives included the priests and Levites. The other says that they were the houses of royalty, meaning that kings also descended from them.
The opinion that these were the houses of the priesthood and the Levites is straightforward: Aaron and Moses came from Yocheved. Aaron was the ancestor of the priesthood, and Moses was from the tribe of Levi.
According to the opinion that these were the houses of royalty, David also descended from Miriam. The verse says, “And Azubah died.” Azubah was the wife of Caleb. Caleb ben Jephunneh was married to Miriam, and Azubah was another name for her. She was called Azubah because she had been abandoned, so to speak. Miriam was a very sick woman, and everyone had abandoned her. Nobody wanted to marry her or become involved with her. Therefore, she was called Azubah, the abandoned one.
The verse continues, “And Caleb took Ephrath.” The Gemara explains that Ephrath was also another name for Miriam. The name Ephrath is related to the idea of recovery: she became well. She was healed and returned to a healthy state. Caleb then had a child with her, named Hur.
We know Hur from the Torah as the grandfather of Bezalel: Bezalel was the son of Uri, the son of Hur. We are now seeing that Miriam was Hur's mother.
The verse also says, “And David was the son of an Ephrathite.” Since Ephrath was the name of Miriam, this means that David descended from Miriam and Caleb. Thus, royalty also came from them.
It is interesting to note that, according to the calculations made here, Caleb must have married at approximately eight years of age. When Caleb went with the spies, he was forty years old. Bezalel, his great-grandson—Caleb, then Hur, then Uri, and then Bezalel—was approximately twelve years old when he built the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle was built in the second year. Thus, when Caleb was forty, he already had a great-grandchild who was twelve or thirteen years old. Many generations had emerged in a very short period of time. The calculation therefore suggests that Caleb must have been very young, approximately eight years old, when he began having children.
That calculation is not the main point. The main point is why these houses were the reward for the midwives. Since they saved the children, they were rewarded with houses of the priesthood, the Levites, and royalty.
The commentators explain that the reward was measure for measure because the midwives saved the boys. Judaism does not determine Jewish identity through the father; it follows the mother. What does follow the father is lineage: priestly, Levitical, and royal status are determined by the father. Therefore, even if the mother is the daughter of a priest and the father is an Israelite, the child is an Israelite. That type of lineage follows the father.
Thus, measure for measure: You saved the boys, and your reward is that you will have a lineage that follows the boys—the priesthood, the Levites, and royalty.
The Gemara now begins to expound passages from Divrei HaYamim, Chronicles. Chronicles discusses various aspects of the history of our people, and many of the names found there are unfamiliar to us. According to the Gemara, however, many of those names are alternate names for people whom we already know. The verses in Chronicles are describing different aspects of their personalities and therefore use different names for them.
The verse refers to “Caleb the son of Hezron.” We know Caleb as Caleb ben Jephunneh, but here Chronicles calls him the son of Hezron. It says that he fathered Azubah, his wife, and also mentions Yeriot and the children born to them: Jesher, Shobab, and Ardon.
The Gemara asks: Why does the verse call Caleb the son of Hezron? One answer is that “Jephunneh” was not really his father's name. Jephunneh means that he turned away. Caleb turned away from the counsel of the spies. His father's name was indeed Hezron, and Caleb ben Hezron is therefore accurate. He was called Jephunneh as a nickname because he turned away from the plan of the spies.
The Gemara challenges this answer. We know that Caleb was the son of Kenaz: the verse says that Othniel ben Kenaz was a brother of Caleb. Othniel ben Kenaz means that Kenaz was the father of Othniel and Caleb. How, then, can Caleb's father have been Hezron?
The answer is that Caleb was his half-brother. His mother had remarried, so Caleb and Othniel had the same mother but different fathers. Caleb was the son of Hezron, while Othniel was the son of Kenaz.
Rashi explains that Caleb was the son of Hezron, while Othniel was his brother through his mother. This also explains why the verse does not call Caleb “the son of Kenaz.” It calls him a Kenizzite, meaning that he was related to Kenaz, rather than saying that he was Kenaz's son. He grew up in Kenaz's household and was raised by him, but Kenaz was not his biological father.
The verse says that Caleb took Azubah. Who was Azubah? She was Miriam. Why had everyone abandoned her? She was ill, weak, and had a poor complexion. Nobody wanted to marry her.
Why, then, does the verse say that Caleb fathered her? The verse should have said that he married her. The explanation is that Caleb saw that she was a righteous woman. He followed the principle that when a person marries, he should look at the wife's brothers and see whether they are righteous. Miriam's brothers were Moses and Aaron. Caleb saw what they would become and married her for the sake of Heaven.
The Rabbis explain that this is because most children resemble their mother's brothers. Caleb therefore looked at Miriam's brothers and made this choice. Since he married her for the sake of Heaven, the verse describes it as though he had fathered her. It was a great merit for him to marry her and bring her back to health.
The verse refers to her as Yeriot, which means curtains. This is another reference to Miriam. She was like a curtain because she had a very pale complexion as part of her illness. There was no color or redness in her face.
The verse then says, “These were her children.” Do not read it as “her children,” but as “those who built her.” The qualities of her husband, Caleb, built her. When a woman marries a righteous person, that also reflects upon her. Caleb's righteousness gave her strength and was constructive for her.
What were the names and qualities associated with Caleb? Jesher means that he straightened himself out. He corrected himself after turning away from the counsel of the spies. Shobab means that he rebelled against his inclination. In the matter of the spies, he did not follow the others; he resisted his inclination and refused to be drawn after them. Ardon means that he subjugated and disciplined his inclination.
Others say that she was called Ardon because her face became like a rose. Before she was healed, her face had been white, pale, or green. After she recovered, color returned to her face, and she looked like a rose.
The verse in Chronicles says, “And Ashhur, the father of Tekoa.” Who was Ashhur? Ashhur was another name for Caleb. He was called Ashhur because he was darkened by fasting. Caleb knew that the spies were planning something, but he did not want to be trapped by their counsel. He fasted so that he would not be drawn after the advice of the spies. His face became dark from the fasts, and he was therefore called Ashhur.
Why is he called “the father of Tekoa”? The word Tekoa is related to the idea of strengthening or planting oneself firmly. Caleb strengthened himself in the service of his Father in Heaven and did not allow himself to be drawn after the spies.
He is also called the father of Miriam because she was sick. He had to care for her, nurse her, and tend to her. In that sense, he became like a father to her.
The verse says that he had two wives, but this refers to Miriam in two stages of her life. At first she was ill, and afterward she was healed. In that sense, she was like two different wives: first a sick woman, and then a woman who had recovered and returned to her youthful state.
Does that mean she was actually two women? The Kabbalah says yes, in the sense that she initially existed in a state of illness and then became well and youthful again.
The verse then speaks of the children of Chelah. These are also names describing Miriam's qualities. She became a Sarah among her friends. Her friends became jealous of her after she recovered and became very beautiful. She was like a rival wife who provokes jealousy.
They were jealous of her beauty because, after she recovered, her face shone like the sun at midday.
The name Etnan can also mean a gift. Why was Miriam called Etnan? Anyone who saw her beauty was aroused to desire his own wife, so he would go home, appease his wife, and give her a gift. Seeing Miriam's beauty caused a man to want to be with his wife, and he would therefore bring his wife a present. That is why she was associated with the word Etnan, a gift.
We now return to Pharaoh's decrees against the Jewish people. The verse says that Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son who is born, you shall cast into the river.” His first plan was not to kill the children at the birthstool. That was the initial plan, intended to limit the population. Pharaoh was concerned about the growth of the Jewish population.
He specifically wanted the girls to remain alive because the Egyptians were involved in immorality and wanted to defile the Jewish girls. If the goal had simply been to limit the population, it would have made no sense to kill the boys while allowing the girls to live. Even if there were fewer boys, each boy could marry several wives and father many children. The fact that Pharaoh wanted the girls to remain alive shows that there was also an immoral plan to take and defile the Jewish girls. That plan, of course, never came to fruition. The girls protected themselves.
The verse now says that Pharaoh commanded all his people. Rabbi Yosef bar Rabbi Hanina explains that Pharaoh eventually made a decree even against his own people. The decree began with the Jewish people, but it ended up applying to the Egyptians as well: they, too, were told to take their children and throw them into the water.
Rabbi Yosef explains that there were three decrees involving the children of the Jewish people. First, Pharaoh commanded that the boys be killed at the birthstool. Second, he commanded that all Jewish boys be thrown into the water. Third, he made a decree that eventually applied even to the Egyptians.
We will see why the decree applied to the Egyptians as well. On the day Moses was born, Pharaoh's astrologers said that they saw that the leader who would take the Jewish people out of Egypt had been born. They were not sure whether he was Jewish or Egyptian. Their vision was not clear because Moses was not raised in Pharaoh's house. Pharaoh therefore ordered that the Egyptian boys be killed as well, so that the redeemer of the Jewish people would certainly be eliminated. Thus, the decree applied to the Egyptians too.
We now discuss the birth of Moses. The verse says that a man from the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi. This was Amram, and the woman was Yocheved, who was his aunt. The Gemara asks where he went, and Rabbi Yehudah bar Zevina says that he went to his daughter's house. He followed the advice of his daughter.
This is the famous story in which Amram had been married to Yocheved, then divorced her, and later remarried her.
The Sages taught that Amram was the greatest person of his generation. Everyone listened to him and followed his rulings. Once Pharaoh, the wicked one, decreed that every boy who was born should be thrown into the river, Amram said, “We are laboring for nothing. Why are we bringing children into the world if they will simply be killed?” He got up and divorced his wife.
Everyone else followed him. Since he was the greatest person of the generation, they also divorced their wives.
Miriam then said to her father, “Your decree is worse than Pharaoh's. Pharaoh decreed only against the boys, while you are preventing the birth of girls as well. Pharaoh's decree affects this world, but your decree affects this world and the World to Come. Pharaoh's decree might not be fulfilled, but you are a righteous person, and your decree will certainly be fulfilled.”
Her first claim was that Amram's decree was worse because it prevented the birth of girls as well. Pharaoh was targeting only the boys, whereas abstaining from having children eliminated the possibility of both boys and girls being born.
Her second claim was that Pharaoh's decree affected only this world, while Amram's decree also affected the World to Come. A soul must first come down into this world in order to reach the World to Come. If the soul never comes down here, it cannot reach the World to Come. By preventing children from being born, Amram was taking away their eternity.
Her third claim was that Pharaoh was wicked, so it was uncertain whether his decree would be fulfilled. Amram, however, was a righteous person. If he said that the children would not be born, his decree would be fulfilled.
Amram listened to his daughter's argument and took back his wife. Everyone else followed him and took back their wives as well.
If that is what happened, the verse should have said that he returned her. Instead, it says that he took her again, as though it were the first time. He placed her in a bridal carriage, the type used to bring a bride to her wedding, and they remarried with a new wedding ceremony. Aaron and Miriam danced before the couple, who were getting married again even though they had already been married previously. The ministering angels sang, “The mother of the children is joyful.”
This is why the verse says that he took her again: he made the second marriage like the first. The verse then says that he married the daughter of Levi.
At this point, Yocheved was 130 years old. It is difficult to refer to her as the daughter of Levi, since she was already an elderly woman. What does “the daughter of Levi” mean?
Rabbi Avin says that this was Yocheved, who was conceived on the journey to Egypt. When Jacob and his family descended to Egypt, Yocheved's mother conceived her on the way and gave birth to her at the border as they entered Egypt. She was the seventieth soul who descended to Egypt.
The verse says that Levi's daughter was born in Egypt, but the Gemara clarifies that her birth was in Egypt; her conception was not in Egypt. She was conceived on the road and born as the family entered Egypt.
We can calculate that she was 130 years old when Moses was born. The Jewish people were in Egypt for 210 years, and Moses was eighty years old when he took them out. Therefore, Moses was born 130 years before the Exodus. Since Yocheved gave birth to him at that time, she was 130 years old.
There is a famous question of Ibn Ezra. Yocheved gave birth at the age of 130, which was a phenomenal miracle. Why does the Torah not make a major point of it, as it does with Sarah? When Sarah had a child at the age of ninety, the Torah makes a great issue of it. Why does the Torah not emphasize that Yocheved gave birth at 130?
The answer is that in the time of Sarah, giving birth at that age was relatively miraculous, and therefore the Torah emphasized it. By the time the Jewish people were in Egypt, however, women were giving birth even at such an advanced age. It was no longer noteworthy in the same way.
Another explanation is that the word “daughter” indicates that she was like a young girl. Her menstrual cycle returned, the wrinkles disappeared from her face, and she became rejuvenated. Although she was 130 years old, she became fresh and youthful again and was therefore called the daughter of Levi.
The verse says, “And she conceived and gave birth to a son.” The Gemara notes that she had already been pregnant for three months when Amram divorced her. They then remarried, and she was already carrying Moses from the first marriage.
Thus, the verse does not mean that she conceived only after the remarriage. Rather, the verse places her conception and birth together in order to compare them. Just as the conception had been painless, so too the birth was painless. The verse is teaching that Yocheved was righteous: her birth of Moses was painless, just as his conception had been painless.
From here we learn that righteous women are not included in the punishment of Eve. The pain of childbirth originated with the curse of Eve, but righteous women can be exempt from it and give birth without pain.
There was one woman whose doctors told her that she had to remain in bed throughout the entire ninth month because she had no labor pains. She would not even feel when the baby was about to be born. This shows that the concept exists: certain women are not subject to the curse, and Yocheved was one of them.
Moses was born. The verse says that his mother saw that he was good, and she called him good. Rabbi Yehudah says that his name was Toviyah. Rabbi Nechemiah says that “good” means that he was fit and worthy for prophecy. She saw through divine inspiration that he would be worthy of prophecy.
Others say that he was born circumcised. He was complete and did not need circumcision. Others explain that when Moses was born, the entire house became filled with light. Thus, “good” refers to the light that filled the house.
Yocheved hid Moses for three months. How did she have those three months? The Egyptians thought that she had conceived only after she and Amram remarried, so they began counting the nine months from the second marriage. They did not know that she had already been pregnant for three months from the first marriage.
She therefore gave birth after six months of the second marriage. The Egyptians did not come to inspect the house until three months later, which gave her three months during which she could hide Moses.
Why could she not continue hiding him? Whenever the Egyptians heard that a child had been born, they would bring Egyptian babies into the Jewish homes and make them cry. When one baby hears another baby cry, it also cries. The Egyptians used this method to locate the Jewish children. They would bring Egyptian babies into the homes, make them cry, and then listen for a Jewish baby crying from a hidden place.
Yocheved knew that the inspectors would soon come, so she had to take Moses out and put him somewhere else. This is what the verse means when it says that she could no longer hide him.
There is a connection to the verse, “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that destroy the vineyards.” These little foxes refer to the Egyptian children who were brought into the Jewish homes. They came to destroy the children of Israel by causing the hidden babies to cry.
Yocheved took a basket and made a small box in which to place Moses. It was made of reeds, a very inexpensive material, like a wicker basket.
The Gemara asks why she chose reeds. Rabbi Elazar says that the righteous value their money more than their bodies. The righteous are careful with their money. Yocheved did not want to spend money on regular wood; she used the cheaper material.
Obviously, she did not endanger Moses's life in order to save money. There is no wisdom in saving money by putting a child's life at risk. Rather, she used a less expensive material that was still sufficient for the purpose.
Why, though, is the money of the righteous so precious to them? A person is not supposed to be overly attached to money. The Gemara answers that the righteous earn their money honestly. They do not steal and do not use shortcuts. Since it takes them time and effort to earn their money, it is precious to them.
In reality, it is their time that is precious. Since honest money takes time to earn, they are careful about how they spend it. A wicked person may not value money in the same way because he can steal it quickly. For the righteous, however, money is precious because it represents the time they invested in earning it honestly. Therefore, when they spend it, they do so cautiously.
Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani offers another reason why she used a basket of reeds. A reed basket can withstand both soft and hard things. It can flex when it encounters soft water, and if a rock strikes it, it can absorb the impact. If she had used ordinary wood from a tree, a rock could have punctured it and created a hole. The flexibility of the reeds gave the basket some protection in the water.
The verse says that she coated the basket with pitch. She put the pitch on the inside and the outside to waterproof it. Why did she put pitch on the outside as well? Pitch has an unpleasant smell. She did not want Moses, the righteous child, to have to smell the pitch inside the basket, so she put the pitch on the outside.
She placed him in the basket and put the basket among the reeds in the water. The phrase referring to the reeds is connected to the Sea of Reeds, but Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani says that it may simply have been an ordinary marsh filled with reeds. The verse says that a marsh has reeds in it, so the reference need not necessarily be to the Sea of Reeds. It may have been a river or swamp where she placed the basket.
Pharaoh's daughter, Batyah, went down to bathe in the river. Rabbi Yochanan, in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, says that she was actually cleansing herself from her father's idolatry. Something entered Batyah's mind: she wanted to abandon her father's idolatry and convert. When she went down to the water, she was immersing herself for the sake of conversion. She was bathing and cleansing herself from the idolatry of her father.
The verse says, “And her maidservants walked.” The word “walked” can also be associated with death. Rabbi Yochanan says that the maidservants died. Why did they die? The same expression is used elsewhere in connection with death.
When Batyah saw the basket among the reeds, she made an effort to save Moses. Her maidservants tried to dissuade her. They said, “My mistress, when a king makes a decree, perhaps people elsewhere do not follow it, but surely his own household follows it. Your father decreed that the children should be killed. How can you defy your father's will?”
The angel Gabriel came and killed the maidservants, smashing them to the ground. He did not want them to dissuade Batyah from saving Moses.
Batyah then sent her maidservant to retrieve the basket. The Gemara presents two interpretations. Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Nechemiah disagree about whether the word means her hand or her maidservant. One opinion says that she sent a maidservant to take the basket. The other says that she extended her hand.
The opinion that it means a maidservant points to the wording of the verse. If it meant her hand, the verse should have used the ordinary word for hand. Since it uses a word that can mean a maidservant, this opinion says that she sent one of her maidservants.
But we just said that Gabriel killed all the maidservants. Where did she get a maidservant? The answer is that he left one maidservant for her. Why did he leave one? It is inappropriate for a princess to be alone. Alternatively, since all the other maidservants had died, the remaining one had seen what happened and would not try to dissuade Batyah. If several maidservants had remained, they might have pressured her, but one maidservant would not do so.
The other opinion says that it was Batyah's hand. If the verse meant that it was a maidservant, it should have used a different expression. The fact that it says this word teaches that her hand extended. The Gemara says that we find two examples of such an extension: the hand of Pharaoh's daughter, which reached toward the distant basket, and the teeth of Og, king of Bashan, which became extended into the mountain he tried to lift.
When Og came to destroy the Jewish people, he lifted a mountain over his head and intended to throw it upon them. Ants bored a hole into the bottom of the mountain, causing it to fall over his head. Og tried to lift it off, but God extended his teeth into the mountain, so that he became lodged and connected to it. Just as Og's teeth extended, Batyah's hand extended to reach the basket.
Rabbi Shaul Levit offers a famous idea. Why did Batyah extend her hand at all? The basket was far away. If a person is sitting and wants something twenty feet away, he does not simply extend his hand, knowing that he cannot reach it.
He explains that extending her hand was all she could do. She knew there was no other way to save the child, so she did everything within her ability. From here we learn not to give up before trying. A person may think something is impossible and therefore not even make an effort. The lesson is that once a person does whatever he is able to do, God takes over.
As the saying goes, “You do your part, and God does the rest.” Success is not entirely in our hands. What is in our hands is the effort. Once a person makes the effort, the Creator can open new doors and make possible things that the person never imagined could happen.
This gives us a beautiful interpretation of the verse describing the Jewish people as seeing the great hand that God had used against Egypt. The commentators explain that when the Jewish people left Egypt, they remembered the first miracle through which Moses had been saved: the extension of Batyah's hand.
When the Jewish people reached the sea, they thanked God not only for the miracles taking place at that moment, but also for the miracles that had taken place in Egypt. “The Jewish people saw the great hand that God had performed against Egypt” also recalls Batyah's great, outstretched hand. They praised God for that miracle as well.
The verse says that Batyah opened the basket and saw the child. The wording indicates that she saw more than one thing. She saw Moses, and she saw the Divine Presence with him.
The verse then says, “And behold, a lad was crying.” Was he a child or a lad? The Gemara says that he was a baby, but his voice sounded like that of a mature lad. It was unusually deep for a small child. Rabbi Nechemiah explains that Moses had a mature voice, but this did not mean that he was physically deformed. Rather, Yocheved had treated him like an older person.
Yocheved thought that she might never see his wedding. A mother wants to make a canopy for her child, but she feared that she would not live to see Moses marry. Therefore, she made a small canopy inside the basket, like a wedding canopy, and treated him as though he were an older child.
In the end, what she said came true. She did not see his wedding, because Moses married in Midian.
Batyah took pity on Moses. She understood that this child was Jewish. The Gemara asks how she knew, especially since Pharaoh had decreed that all children should be thrown into the water, and Egyptians were also in the water. How did she know that he was Jewish?
Rabbi Yosef bar Hanina says that Moses was circumcised. One might suggest that perhaps an Egyptian child had also been born circumcised. However, Batyah saw that although he had been born circumcised, an additional procedure had been performed. A Jewish child still required that procedure, whereas if an Egyptian child had merely been born circumcised, no such procedure would have been performed. From this, she knew that the child was Jewish.
Batyah said, “This is one.” The Gemara explains that she made a prophecy without realizing what she was saying. She was saying that this was the only child who had been subject to Pharaoh's decree. It was the only basket in the water. No other child died. This was the child connected to the decree.
What does that mean? The verse describing the Egyptian soothsayers attempts to belittle them. They looked and chirped, but they did not know what they were seeing. They saw something concerning the ultimate leader of Israel, but they misunderstood it.
They saw in the stars that the ultimate redeemer of Israel would be punished through water. Therefore, Pharaoh and his advisers decreed that all the children should be placed in the water. They thought that by throwing all the boys into the water, they would bring about the fulfillment of what they had seen.
Once Moses's basket entered the water, the astrologers said that they no longer saw the sign. They went to Pharaoh and said that they no longer saw anything. They assumed that the redeemer had been eliminated, so the decree could end. They had seen correctly that Moses would be punished through water, but they had misunderstood which water it would be.
Moses was indeed punished through water, but not through the water of the river. He was punished through the water when he struck the rock. The Egyptian astrologers saw something but did not know what they were seeing. They assumed it referred to the water of Egypt, so they placed Moses in the river. It actually referred to the water of strife at the end of Moses's life.
This is what the verse says: “These are the waters of strife.” The expression can be understood as referring to the waters through which Moses was punished. That is how we know that Moses's punishment was connected to water.
The same idea appears in the verse describing the Jewish people as numbering six hundred thousand men on foot. The Gemara expounds the word for “on foot” as meaning “because of me.” Moses was telling the people, “Your existence is because of me, because I stopped the decree.”
How did Moses save all the Jewish people? Pharaoh had decreed that the Jewish boys be thrown into the water. Once Moses's basket entered the water, the astrologers said that the sign had disappeared, and the decree ended. Moses could therefore say that the Jewish people's existence was connected to him because he brought about the end of the decree.
But Tosafot asks a powerful question. Why should Moses take credit for stopping the decree? He was also the reason the decree had been issued in the first place. The astrologers had seen that Moses would be punished through water, and because they saw that, Pharaoh decreed that all the children should be thrown into the water. Moses was the cause of the decree as well as the means through which it stopped.
Tosafot answers that Moses was the first child thrown into the water. Once the first basket entered the water, the decree ended. According to Tosafot, none of the other children died as a result of that decree. Pharaoh had made a decree against every Jewish boy, but it did not succeed. One child—Moses—was placed in the water, and then the decree ended.
This also allows us to understand Miriam's argument to Amram. Miriam had said, “You are a righteous person, so your decree will certainly be fulfilled, whereas Pharaoh is wicked, and it is uncertain whether his decree will be fulfilled.” She was correct. Pharaoh's decree was not fulfilled. He made the decree, but only one baby was placed in the water, and then it ended.